Wednesday, September 17, 2003

2003 Pan American Endurance Championship: Final Results


On Behalf Of Lori Stewart



CIA REIS (USA) WINS PAN AMERICAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

Cia Reis of Pennsdale, PA (USA), won the individual Gold Medal at the 2003
Pan American Endurance Championship which took place on 13 September 2003 in
Trout Lake, WA. A member of the USA East squad, Reis rode Catch A Wave to
the Gold and also the Championship's Best Condition Award.

A member of the US Team that competed in last year's World Equestrian Games
in Jerez de la Frontera, Reis finished the ride time of 9:14.13. Heather
Reynolds of USA Pacific South, the defending Pan Am Gold Medalist, won the
Silver Medal with a time of 9:37:40 on Aleclipse. Vicki Crance of USA East,
won the Bronze Medal on RA Jestic Diamond in 9:43:13.

The team Gold Medal was won by the USA Pacific North team of Sharon
Westergard on MCM Phantazem "Taz", Pat Murray on CR Flash Gordon, Michele
Roush on PR Tallymark, and former World Champion Cassandra Schuler on ELD
Triton.

The team Silver went to USA Mountain and the Bronze went to Canada West.
Full results of the 2003 Pan American Endurance Championships are available
on line at http://www.endurance.net/2003pac



Sunday, September 07, 2003

AERC National Championship 100 Mile Entrants


On Behalf of - Connie Caudill - Enduroride@aol.com
======================================================================
Listed below are the riders/horses that are entered in the
100 mile AERC National Championship to date.

It will be updated soon. Will also list the 50 milers before long.

Don't miss out on the fun, it's not too late for you to enter call today!

RIDER NAME HORSE NAME Home
=====================================================================
100 - M RICHARD DAWSON JS BACH HAMMIL VLY, CA
101 - L LINDA DOLLAR CA MISTY MYVANWY MARIPOSA,CA
102 - F DABNEY FINCH ORZO MURIETA, CA
103 - F KAREN FRANCIS OMR ASAP SISTERS,OR
105 - L DEAN HOALST LDJ PHANTUM WALLA WALLA,WA
106 - F MERIDITY MAYEROFF CS KHALIENTE RENO,NV
107 - L LINDA MORELLI OSO ETYLEAN WINCHESTER,CA
108 - H GREG PRYOR SQR QAMAAR WEST POINT,CA
109 - L TAMMY ROBINSON TR SHARKEE SAUGUS,CA
110 - F SHELLI SEXTON ALWAYS A STAR RIVERSIDE,CA
111 - M CHARLENE STUEVE TR WHYATT SAUGUS,CA
112 - F BONNIE TOBIAS MURCURY'S RAHINA WAYLAND,MI
113 - F DEBBY LYON ARCADE SAN LUIS OBISPO,CA
114 - M ROBERT RIBLEY SHIFTY GRASS VALLEY,CA
115 - L JENNIFER BRUHMULLER MAXIMUM POTENTIAL NAPERVILLE,IL
116 - M DOUGLAS SANDLIN OMARS APATCHEE FRANKLIN,TN
117 - H MAGGIE MIESKE MASHALLA ALMALIK EVART,MI
118 - L LINDA GLAZIER TAMARRON REO RAPTURE GEORGETOWN,CA
119 - M DAVE COOTWARE TALASMANS CRUZER RENO,NV
120 - F BEVERLY GRAY PALADIN PARK CITY,UT
121 - L JENNIFER NIEHAUSE CHEYENNE XII CLOVERDALE,CA
122 - H JOAN ZELNEY INDIANA RED RIVER PETALUMA,CA
123 - L GAIL ZECK HK CONTENDER POINT BLANK,TX
124 - M JACKIE BUMGARDNER ZAYANTE BRIDGEPORT,CA
125 - L KAREN BOTTIANI MOVIN' ON BLUES LAFAYETTE,CA
126 - J/NQ KATIE ALTON HY TYME SAN JOSE,CA
127 - L/NQS ELISE GRESKE KABIR PETALUMA,CA
128 - L JAZON WONDERS GANDTII PETALUM,CA
129 - L SUSAN OBERMEYER DEVOSION ASPEN,CO
130 - M BRENDA BENKLY WINDSWIFT TAABI CLAYTON,CA
131 - F JUDY HOULE FELEX PILOT HILL,CA
132 - L JAN WORTHINGTON KORBEZ SCALES MOUND,IL
133 - H GUS POLITIS OUZO MARSHALL,VA
134 - M CHRISTOPH SCHORK MOAB,UT
135 - H CROCKETT DUMAS ESCALANTE,UT
136 - L STEPHANIE TEETER OREANA,ID
137 - H JON NEIHAUSE HP TANTTARI CLOVERDALE,CA
138 - L JOYCE MOCILAN LOUIS LAFITE BLOOMINGTON,IL


Thursday, September 04, 2003

Horses in Alberta


>On Behalf Of Mike Sherrell

August horse news

We spent August around Edmonton in Central Alberta, at the northern end of
the Great Plains, looking for flat pretty gaiting out of the heat of the
California summer, hoping for archetypal grasslands to wander or endless
dirt tracks through the north woods into our dreams as the ends of our lives
get nearer.

Thunderstorms roll through almost weekly, it seems, so in August when
California's dessicated yellow is getting as tiresome as the snow of
February must be in Canada, it's an inviting green, huge lawns of mown crops
and roadsides that make English country estate grounds seem like cramped
wannabes. The footing is excellent to good, lovely black alluvial dirt. But
the grasslands are cut into rectangles, sides running north-south and
east-west, in 80- and 160-acre blocks. Around many of them are fences to
keep the cattle, horses or sheep in, and around almost all of them are roads
for cars, often paved and in almost every other case wide, graded and
gravelled. West of Edmonton I did find the Jack Pine Provincial Grazing
Reserve, a big unfenced section of land to ride, and with a lot of effort
could imagine the freedom of riding as Arnold Rojas says the Spanish found
the New World, "half a world to ride across." But the cattle had had their
way with it, the brush and low tree limbs chewed, cow pies strewn across the
ground, bare dirt showing through the stubble. Not as bad as the grazed
parts of Pt. Reyes, because it was rolling and allowed riding in any
direction.

On the edge of the grasslands, between the prairie and the boreal forest,
as the ecologists call it, there is a zone called the aspen parklands. We
have never found more beautiful riding. Tall, slender, white-barked trees,
sometimes half golden in the long evening sun ­ at the solstice it sets at
10:30 ­ with a trail or track winding through like Hansel and Gretel or the
dream of our forgotten ancestors. Have you ever noticed that the paso gaits
at about the speed of a butterfly? The forest has elk and foxes and wild
strawberries and blueberries, and other berries you can pick from horseback.

We haven't found the endless trail, but we found some that were longer than
the horses were yet conditioned to ride, at Ft. Assiniboine Sandhills
Wildland Provincial Park, Cooking Lake/Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area,
Old Edmonton Trail in Sherwood Park, and (so far the best) Miquelon Lake
Provincial Park, where the trails are wherever there are no trees, and you
either need a GPS to get home, a lot of spare daylight, or an exceptional
sense of direction (and where the skull of a missing, presumed murdered,
prostitute was turned up last week).

The undergrowth in the aspen woods is impassible, but frequently there is a
lake or pond to be seen near the trail, often created by a beaver dam, their
lodge visible in the middle of it. The view then, just yards away, is
beautiful and inaccessible. These unattainable sights, sacred in their way,
framed by the white pillars of the aspen, reminded me of European church
architecture, unreachable ceilings and altars, gilt or marble, carved or
painted by masters, to be gazed at, to inspire longing for their beauty,
proffering the prospect of a union with the holy. I should have seen the
forest before going to Europe, because man learned what was beautiful from
looking at nature first, and the medieval church builders were much closer
to nature than we are, and it would be better if the churches reminded me of
the forest rather than vice versa.

At Ft. Assiniboine part of the trail system follows the old Yukon Trail.
But this is where it starts to get hilly, and the only ideal, flat part is a
few miles along the Athabasca River. We stabled the horses for a night at
the Horse Creek Ranch, a dude ranch which caters to Dutch and Belgian
tourists the owner picks up from training stables he's connected to in the
Low Countries. The people we met there had all been taking riding lessons in
Europe and were adequate to the quiet quarter horses of the ranch, but were
intrigued by our Peruvians. We let some of them ride, and one beanstalk of a
guy with legs too long for the stirrups and who said he'd taken the Pat
Parelli clinic, apparently very modish in Europe just now, was immediately
whizzing along on Grandiosa in fine gait, his legs dangling and not bouncing
at all.

Southeast of Ft. Assiniboine is the Whitecourt area, where the guide book
says there's lots of hiking but nowhere to hike to. That grabbed my
attention, because it sounded like all there was to do was wander through
the woods, in hopes of which I came all this way. Whitecourt bills itself as
the Snowmobile Capital of the World, and has scores of miles of snowmobile
track cut through the aspen forest. We scoped it out for future reference,
and found all kinds of entrances to the forest beckoning from alongside the
road. Some of these possible routes were "cutlines": Alberta is hydrocarbon
country, and the forest is sliced through with what are also sometimes
called seismic lines, straight lines cut through the woods for a couple of
miles, apparently at random, I gather as part of the oil prospecting
procedure. (It is said that oil prospectors are the profession most likely
to be grizzly fare.)

Canadian horse news: Grandiosa got galled by the cinch, so we've been
switching cinches and saddlepads ­ it's possible that once the sore was
opened, it was kept open by irritation from the square front corners of the
Peruvian saddlepad we'd been using under Jean's expensive endurance saddle ­
and learning about different balms and antibiotics and salves and ointments
and potions and nostrums. Aquaralia started fighting the bit, perhaps
because she hadn't had a gradual enough introduction to it, perhaps because
this particular bit had something about it that bugged her, perhaps because
she's a horse that is just idiosyncratically unsuited to bitting, perhaps
because I'm not sensitive enough with bitted horses. I put her in Dale
Downey's hand-knotted Peruvian rope bozal, and she immediately became calm.
Now it remains to be seen whether a) she'll stay calm, and b) I can keep her
collected and in gait. She immediately started carrying her poll two or
three inches below where it was when she wore the bit and is understepping a
good eight inches. This is truly a difficult horse, but willing and sturdy
and worth a lot of trouble.

I may find the open grasslands or endless trail yet, in Wood Buffalo
National Park, home of the biggest free-ranging buffalo herd in the world,
or in Peace River country. The winter road from Ft. McKay to Ft. Chipewyan
is 100 unpaved miles, but I found out it's all sand, which would make it too
much of a slog for me, and in any case is heavily traveled by ATVs,
apparently since the big oil sands projects opened and brought up all these
blue collar motorheads. Too bad; the main roadside attractions are
apparently Indian villages.

But our last weekend, since we'd finally got the girls shod front and back,
I was able to try Aquarelia on 6 or 8 miles of the quiet, lightly travelled
gravelled roads that grid the entire agricultural zone of the province. The
gravel is marble size and smaller, and rounded, not jagged. You can almost
always find a line that keeps you in half an inch of gravel or deeper, so it
's not concussive and is conducive to the foot sliding when it hits ­
Aquaralia's hind shoes soon got sanded smooth and shiny. At the gait the
farmscape drifts by picturesquely ­ big sunshiny bales, vast undulating
fields of yellow wheat or golden something ­ safflower?, combines mowing,
trains, windbreak lines of trees, cattle, horses, flocks of crows pecking up
grasshoppers, etc., etc. From the map I think I could pick out at least 50
and possibly several hundred continuous miles of this sort of road, and
there are at least some little towns with motels that might be accessible ­
even the paved roads usually have huge shoulders, a hundred feet wide and
more, usually mown grass or crops that can be negotiated. There are
farmsteads every mile or so, almost always with livestock and thus feed. It
seems that the ingredients for horseback travel may be present.

On one of the very first rides, to the Blackfoot Trail, we encountered a
thoroughbred that was dancing around uncontrollably, and which swung around
suddenly and kicked Aquaralia. The kick was so hard that Aquaralia was
driven into my opposite thigh hard enough to bruise the inside of it.
Unfortunately Aquarelia was shielded by my ankle, which had to go into a
cast for the rest of the month. I brought the stirrup in to the doctor to
make sure the cast wouldn't be too big to go in, and fortunately the doctor
left enough of my toes free to let me spring into the saddle as usual, once
I'd got used to it. Every horse person I met asked me what happened, so I
was glad it was a horse accident. Anyway, the kick took place several miles
out in the woods, and gave me the curiously pleasureable realization that I
unable to get home except on my horse.

Back home in California, the bad news is that Grandiosa is still, after 12
months, lame in her left hind. DLSD is not ruled out, but the fact that it's
so far not bilateral would seem to militate against it. Julio Soto Jr. has
restored Traveller's gait, so all that remains is for me not to destroy it
again. Sherry Fairchild let me ride Dancer, who we bred 8 years ago and who
I like very much. She needs to have her head brought up; I could force her
into collection and make her gait, but it was hard for her and she got tired
and really didn't like it after just five or ten minutes. If Traveller weren
't all ready to go I'd love to work on Dancer. She's real smart,
hypersensitive and huge for a mare.


Mike Sherrell
Grizzly Analytical (USA)
707 887 2919/fax 707 887 9834
www.grizzlyanalytical.com


AERC National Championship Ride

On Behalf Of Karen Chaton

If you have not already sent your entry in, you need to get it in
ASAP. You can find entries on the website
here: http://www.aerc.org/nc2003/default.html Please fax the filled out
form, and then mail the original with a check. Entries need to be received
by the 15th of September to guarantee a completion award (which, btw, will
be something really nice) and your meals.

Ride management has listened to the suggestions from riders after the
pre-ride in July and have a 2000 gallon water truck, 5 water buffalos and
riders will absolutely not ever have to go more than 7 miles at the most
between water stops! There will be live entertainment for four
nights. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be catered every day. They will
also have a ride steward present.

Volunteers wanted -- they are in the process now of coordinating all of the
volunteers. If you can help in any way please go to the website for more
information or email Carol Hoeft at: Ess3x@aol.com

We are working on putting a list of the riders and horses who have
entered. John and Steph are going to be taking care of the website
coverage on ride day.

Happy Trails,

Karen
in NV

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Havemeyer Equine Behavior Laboratory

This web site was developed to share information from our laboratory with veterinarians, veterinary students, animal behaviorists, animal scientists, graduate students, equine enthusiasts, and the public. Within this web site you will find both clinical veterinary and scientific works, written mostly to the veterinary practitioner or scientific equine behavior community, but also excellent tips and "popular press" items of possible interest to horse owners or enthusiasts.

More ...

Havemeyer Equine Behavior Laboratory

This web site was developed to share information from our laboratory with veterinarians, veterinary students, animal behaviorists, animal scientists, graduate students, equine enthusiasts, and the public. Within this web site you will find both clinical veterinary and scientific works, written mostly to the veterinary practitioner or scientific equine behavior community, but also excellent tips and "popular press" items of possible interest to horse owners or enthusiasts.

More ...

Havemeyer Equine Behavior Laboratory

This web site was developed to share information from our laboratory with veterinarians, veterinary students, animal behaviorists, animal scientists, graduate students, equine enthusiasts, and the public. Within this web site you will find both clinical veterinary and scientific works, written mostly to the veterinary practitioner or scientific equine behavior community, but also excellent tips and "popular press" items of possible interest to horse owners or enthusiasts.

More ...

Havemeyer Equine Behavior Laboratory

This web site was developed to share information from our laboratory with veterinarians, veterinary students, animal behaviorists, animal scientists, graduate students, equine enthusiasts, and the public. Within this web site you will find both clinical veterinary and scientific works, written mostly to the veterinary practitioner or scientific equine behavior community, but also excellent tips and "popular press" items of possible interest to horse owners or enthusiasts.

More ...

FEI Press News 28/03

On Behalf Of Lori Stewart

=================================

FEDERATION EQUESTRE INTERNATIONALE
FEI PRESS NEWS 28/03
3 SEPTEMBER 2003

TOP ENDURANCE RIDERS AT PAN AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP

Over 100 endurance riders and their horses from 11 countries are gathering
at the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest at Trout Lake, WA for the 2003 Pan
American Endurance Championship. The USA will field five teams while Canada
is sending two. The countries of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Japan,
New Zealand, Romania, Spain and Sweden are also sending top ranked riders to
challenge the trails.

Competitors will begin the 100 mile (160 km.) ride over rolling terrain at
5:00 the morning of 13 September. Although they have a full 24 hours to
complete the ride, the winners are expected to cross the finish line in
about half that time. Riders will also be vying for the coveted Best
Condition and High Vet Score awards, which reward the excellent physical
condition of the top endurance horses.

USA Pacific South rider Heather (Bergantz) Reynolds will be looking to earn
her second consecutive individual gold medal, although the horse she is
riding is not the one she rode to success at the 2001 Pan Am Championship.
Reynolds, this year's Tevis Cup winner, said she thinks her chances of doing
well with the 7-year-old Arabian gelding Aleclipse are very good. "I feel
very good about the ride," she said.

The USA East team will be defending the Team Gold it won at the 2001 Pan
American Championship, with three of the winning four riders returning to
the squad. They will be joined by Valerie Kanavy and her Arabian gelding
Emphatic, co-winners at last year's World Masters Championship.

PAC 2003 organizer Stephanie Irving said preparations for the competition
are on schedule. This being one of the driest years in history, they are
working with the Forest Service on a fire prevention plan, and a strict
protocol to reduce the fire risk. The local volunteer fire department will
be keeping the camp and the trail supplied with ample water. "We're
fortunate that forestry officials are working with us to allow us to go
ahead with the PAC and to keep our riders, horses and the environment safe,"
said Irving.

For updated news and information, visit www.endurance.net/2003pac
MEDIA OFFICER:
Jan Mansfield, Janus Communications Inc.
januscom@shaw.ca
T. 604.657.3828; F. 604.926.4333

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

GMHA 100/60 Results (ECTRA)

On Behalf Of Jane Soule

GMHA 3-day 100, South Woodstock, VT August 28-31, 2003
27 Start - 22 Finish
Champion: Daystar Challenge - Dan Boyer
Reserve: Nicholas - Janet Mayberry
Heavyweight:
1- Smoke Rise Finally - Steve Rojek
2- Lord Darshan - Liz Szeliga
3- Izusu - Charlotte Lester
4- Jake - Wendy Bejarano
5- Otis - Louise Townsend

Middleweight
1- Secret Autumn Twlight - Dan Rice
2- Seagull - Hernan Barbosa
3- Piper - Pam Karner
4- W A Prohets Fire - Kim Firestone
5- Hollowtree Exuberance - Allen Welles
6- BT Peter Gunn - Megan Meldrum
C- Shyrocco Lyric - Jenny Kimberley

Lightweight:
1- Manyone Praise Song Furka - Krista Alderdice
2- Chelby - Marlene Bottesi
3- USA Pardons Lace - Anne Cameron
4- HFA Silver Savanna -Marcia Delaware
5- Mohave - Clara Steck
6- Elegant Pride - Lisa Conner
C- Every Little Kiss - Dorothea Meldrum

Junior:
1 - DML Smoke Silver - Courtney Walker

GMHA 2 Day 60 - 20 Start - 15 Finish

Champior: Bask Tai Yin - Heather Hoyns
Reserve: VSF Otis - Connie Walker

Heavyweight:
1- Garzon's Gypsy Boy - Jennifer Broome
2- NLF Vigilant - Carl Lange
3- Velvet's Safire - Jenny Betrum

Middleweight:
1- BAF Cubis Choice - Laura Pedersen
2- Haz-Mat - Shirley Ouelette
3- Prince Buddy - Pam Cameron
4- Ashmoro Billy Alan - Rhonda Batchlerer

Lightweight:
1- Ramegwa Eldarapd - Meg Prive Bruno
2- Charlestown Raphael - Anne Marie Savino
3- GH Jessie Jolady - Debbie Houghton
4- Bebedigtine - Andrea Griffith
5- Riffler - Stacia Newell

Junior:
1- Ramegwa Bear - Russell Price Bruno


Chile's Martin Playing the Long Game in Endurance

FEI.org - Full Story 20 September 2024 Words by Stacey Stearn We catch up with the Pan American champion... “Endurance riding is a spor...